Yahoo BOSS Will Adopt a Paid Model in 2011

Yahoo! announced its intention of launching a new version (V2) of its custom search integration service BOSS into a pay-per-query financial model at the start of 2011.

Yahoo! Search BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) was launched back in 2008 by the Yahoo! Developer Network, and has allowed web developers access to the tools necessary into creating and integrating search services into any website.

BOSS allows access to the Yahoo! Search index results, providing tools for retrieving them via a RESTful API.

With the Microsoft search deal under their belt, Yahoo search results are already being returned with many “Powered by Bing” mentions.

All Yahoo! is trying to do is get some profits out of its most successful search venture.

Since its launch, BOSS has established itself as the leader in custom search integration, overtaking the market leader Google.

Its biggest feature is the possibility of free use and a no ads required policy.

After BOSS V2 will hit the market, V1 users will still be allowed a free use of the service for 60 more days. Therefore after, a commission must be paid for using any BOSS service.

The new BOSS V2 will adopt a cost-per-query schema, queries being priced depending on their target: images, information, news, web, etc..

Costs will vary from $0.40 and up to $0.70 CPM (cost per 1000 BOSS queries). A nominally-priced version of BOSS will be available for educational and non-profit organizations.

Developers will also have the possibility to make money from BOSS V2 by entering the new ad marketplace put into place by the Yahoo! - Microsoft Search Alliance.

BOSS V2 will still use its successful RESTful API for retrieving search results, but plans to use Bing results for the core web and image results are still in discussion.

Accessing BOSS V2 will be as before, through the YDN (Yahoo! Developer Network) platform via oAuth.

Credit-card authentication, usage, billing, and more other tools will be provided in a completely new redesigned administrative dashboard page.

The release date hasn't been set, but V2 is expected in early 2011.